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Death
Related Problems
 | hazardous environments
 | earthquake most lethal natural disaster |
|
| newborns injected with radioactive iodine
| government research |
|
| capital punishment |
World Without
Death
| believed that there would be major changes
in both their personal lives
and in society in general |
Death System
People
| funeral directors |
| floral tributes |
| insurance sales |
Places
| cemetery |
| funeral home |
| hospitals |
Times
| December 29
| Sioux massacred at Wounded Knee |
|
| Memorial Day |
| September 11 |
| Day of the Dead |
| December 7
| Pearl Harbor |
|
Objects
| automobiles |
| guns |
| cigarettes |
Symbols
| music
|
| black arm bands |
| euphemisms |
| antisentimental expressions |
| "terminally ill"
| objectivistic and distancing orientation |
|
Functions of Death
System
Warnings and
Predictions
| storm warnings |
| medical |
Preventing Death
| war on death tied to socioeconomics |
| people with health insurance live longer
than people without insurance |
| 1,000,000 lifestyle deaths in the US each
year
| first tobacco, then diet/activity |
|
Caring for the
Dying
| from comfort to cure to comfort care |
| more do-not-resuscitate orders are being
written in intensive care |
Disposing of the
Dead
| conflict over funerals |
| avoidance-of-the-corpse rituals
| Amish place the simple coffin in the house
or barn |
|
| identification of bodies and burial
|
Capital Punishment
| becoming less common through the world |
| U. S., Bangladesh, Barbados, Iran, Iraq,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
and Yemen |
| Preserving the Dignity of Man |
| states differ as to what crimes are
punishable by death and use
different methods |
| in 1998, there were 73 people on death row
who had committed
their offenses while under the age of 18 |
Utopia
| Thomas More |
| war would be essential, but would be done
in a cost effective way |
Thanatology
| the study of death |
The Black Death
(Plague)
| mode of dying most often led to images of
death as divine punishment
for human vanity and pride |
Tuberculosis
| idea of a romantic death that comes to
brilliant but doomed youth |
Death System in US
| society "turned killer"
| capital punishment |
| infant mortality in the US |
| impoverished people |
| toxic waste |
| lethal violence |
|
Life Expectancy
| estimated number of years remaining in a
person’s life |
Crude Death Rate
| total number of deaths in a population
divided by the number of people in that population |
Infant Mortality
| rate in US has decreased by more than 500%
since 1940 |
| lowest in Japan with rate of 4 and highest
in Bangladesh
with 107 (per 1,000 live births) |
| rate in US is 7.1 in 1997 |
Leading causes of
death
| 1900 - pneumonia/influenza and
tuberculosis |
| 1997 - heart disease and cancer |
Nineteenth Century Death
Customs
| coffin |
| family caring for the body |
| cemetery near center of town, by church |
Twentieth Century Death
Customs
| casket |
| funeral home preparing body |
| burial by cemetery crew |
| cemetery out of the center of town, away
from churches |
Death Rate at Turn of
20th Century
| 47 years |
| one or both parents might die before
children reach adolescence |
| mother dies at childbirth |
| stillborn children |
| high mortality rate of children and
infants |
| rapid death from acute infectious diseases
| whooping cough, diphtheria, polio,
pneumonia, influenza |
|
Death Rate at Turn of
21st Century
| 75 years |
| children outlive parents |
| epidemiological transition |
| death is slower
| heart disease and cancer |
|
American Perspectives of
Death
1700-1920’s
| primitive health care and sanitation |
| limited technology to protect against
environment |
| large, extended families |
| small, personal communities |
1700-1920’s
| rural life |
| religion |
| funerals and cemeteries prominent |
| wars on American soil |
1920-1960’s
| health and medical care and sanitation
improvement |
| industrial and urban growth |
| smaller, mobile families |
| large, urban, impersonal families |
| war removed |
| executions ceased to be public |
| movie and television violence (no
permanence of dead) |
| living a longer life-span |
| death’s location removed from house |
| euphemisms |
| funeral directors |
1960’s to
present
| realism in movies |
| age shift |
| technology threatens |
| technology slows the death process |
| emphasis on quality of life |
| personal problems of survivors |
| behavioral and social scientists aged |
| publications (Kubler-Ross) |
To summarize:
| life expectancy and mortality |
| changing causes of death |
| geographical mobility |
| displacement of death from home |
| life-extending technologies |
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